The Force Is With Dark Horse

Beyond just being a vice president at Dark Horse, Stradley is also the editor of Dark Horse's "Star Wars" comics line and has actually been an author of a long list of "Star Wars" titles himself. In talking about Dark Horse successes, perhaps one of the greatest successes for Dark Horse in recent years has been the re-launch of its "Star Wars" lineup with "Star Wars: Legacy" and "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic." With those two titles, Dark Horse has broken the mold, which held a certain type of reader for more than a decade and expanded the reach and ultimately the success of Dark Horse itself.

"'Star Wars' comics have, for the past decade or so, been bought primarily by 'Star Wars' fans that are inclined to buy comics, and not by comics fans," Stradley explained. "Interest in our titles had reached a plateau."

So Stradley and company shook up the line and woke up regular comics fans to the fact that something cool was happening with the "Star Wars" comics, and that they didn't need a vast knowledge of "Star Wars" continuity to jump into the stories we wanted to tell.

"What has been interesting is the number of Star Wars fans who had never bought the comics who are now becoming dedicated readers," Stradley said. "That was an unexpected bonus. To put it in perspective, sales of our 'Star Wars' titles have doubled from what they were before the shakeup."

It's About The Creators

Dark Horse's success also has a lot to do with the creators and authors of the comic books that it produces. It's the job of the comic book creators to meet the objective of entertaining readers and it's a job that's a bit different at Dark Horse than at DC or Marvel.

John Ostrander (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ostrander) is a comic book legend in his own right. He has worked on books like "X-Men" and "Punisher" for Marvel, while he has worked on "Firestorm," "Justice League" and now "Batman" for DC. Ostrander is also the writer of Dark Horse's "Star Wars: Legacy" comic book series. Suffice it say, he knows a thing or two about all three comic book publishers.

"It's smaller than DC or Marvel so there is more direct contact with everyone," Ostrander said about Dark Horse.

"At the same time, Dark Horse is larger than some of the small companies I've worked with and, thus, more stable," Ostrander said. "Crass though it may sound, it means I'm going to get paid for the work I do and, since I make my living off my writing, it's very important to me."

Dark Horse has also given Ostrander a high degree of freedom and latitude.

"I'd like to think that we've earned that and justified having it but who knows if a bigger company would have given us the chance?" Ostrander said. "Star Wars is important to Dark Horse and "Legacy" is a very important part of their line."

John Jackson Miller (http://www.farawaypress.com/) the writer on Dark Horse's "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" series sees Dark Horse in a different light.

"To an extent a comic book is a comic book is a comic book - the means and manner of their production doesn't change much from one house to another," Miller told TwitchGuru.

There is a difference though. That difference according to Miller is that while Marvel and DC own the characters in their most popular titles, Dark Horse is a caretaker of the "Star Wars" characters.

"The company does publish some titles it owns, of course, but the balance is much more in the direction of either licensed material like 'Star Wars' and 'Conan' or creator-owned material," Miller said.

In such an environment, Miller argues that external forces play more of a role. For example, the film releases over the last few years certainly influenced the sorts of things that Dark Horse was doing.

It's not all one way though.

"The KOTOR video games were set in an era that was first explored in the Dark Horse comics," Miller said. "And then consider a film like 'Aliens' vs. 'Predator' - the genesis of that was, again, in the comics that Dark Horse did. There's some creative feedback going in both directions."